Zambian FA claim striker Chitalu scored more in a year than Messi

Whilst there is no doubting that Lionel Messi has had a phenomenal year, his breaking of Gerd Muller’s goalscoring record from 1972 of 86 goals could well be under threat from an unlikely source.

The Zambian FA claim that their forward Godfrey Chitalu scored an amazing 107 goals in the same year as Gerd Muller, which would demolish Messi’s effort.

A Zambian official explains:

‘While Messi’s record is there, while Mueller’s record is there, the actual record holder in terms of goals per calendar year is actually an African, it’s actually Godfrey Chitalu.

‘We have this record, which has been recorded in Zambian football, but unfortunately it has not been recorded in world football. Even as the world has been looking at Lionel Messi’s record, breaking Gerd Müller’s, the debate and discussion back here has been why Godfrey’s goals are not being recognised.’

‘What we are doing is, we have commissioned an independent team locally to go back into the archives and record minute-by-minute each of those goals. The team that we have put together is going to calculate all of those goals, recording whichever game or tournament they were scored in.’